


Quick, Somebody Pinch Me

by MellodramaticLawliet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dream Sharing, M/M, RIP Keith, Soul Bond, Soulmates, klance, like seriously i need to stop bullying him in all my fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2019-11-01 15:25:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17869811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellodramaticLawliet/pseuds/MellodramaticLawliet
Summary: "Suddenly, Keith’s head rose, and his eyes met Lance’s slowly, “Lance… What if you’re my soulmate, but I’m not yours?”"-Or in other words, Lance and Keith's soulmate link manifests itself in the form of shared dreams... but Keith is the only one who remembers them after they wake up. Bonus: Keith is a pining train wreck, and Lance can't figure out why Keith occasionally hates him for no reason.





	1. Of Course It's Veradero

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry about the title I literally couldn't help myself

Lance felt himself heave a deep breath, his mind coming to a freezing halt as he registered the briny scent of ocean air. Then all at once the sensations hit him: salty wind brushing against his face, soft sand beneath his feet, the sound of waves gently crashing nearby.

His eyes shot open and he sighed, recognizing Veradero immediately. Something deep in the back of his mind told him this was a dream, and as disappointing as that was, it was a very realistic dream… and at this point Lance would take what he could get.

Glancing around himself he noticed a picnic set up a foot behind where he was standing and knew without having to check that his mom’s garlic knots filled the large wicker basket in the middle of the checkered blanket.

He stepped back and sat at the edge, keeping his feet in contact with the sand, continuing to gaze out at the ocean, not quite able to tear his eyes away from the familiar horizon.

“Hey, what’s for lunch?”

“AH!” Lance jolted out of his reverie, scrambling away from the person who’d appeared right next to him on the picnic blanket, “Keith!?”

Keith calmly folded his legs beneath him, giving Lance an unreadable look, “Lance.”

“What are you doing in my dream?” He thought he was imagining it when he noticed the slight slump in Keith’s shoulders.

“Enjoying the view, I suppose.” He leaned back on his hands and tilted his head toward Lance, “It’s been a while since your head’s taken us here. Have you been homesick lately?”

“I’m always homesick.” Lance brought his knees closer to his chest, leaning his chin on his arms.

“Oh yeah I know,” Keith gave him a sad smile, “You’re just not usually this homesick.”

Lance shrugged, “Today… Or well, yesterday, was the two month anniversary since we found the blue lion. And left Earth.”  
He felt the familiar tightness in his chest and cast his eyes back over the water, allowing it to loosen the knot in his stomach. Just a bit.

“You know it’ll probably help if you talk to one of us about it.” Keith pointed out calmly, “You know, outside of dreamland.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance rolled his eyes, “Thanks for your sage advice, Dream Keith, but I have it under control. It was just the two month mark that got to me.”

  
Keith was silent for long enough that Lance turned to frown at his blanket companion, just to find him staring down at the sand with a sad expression.  
“Uh, dude?” Lance prompted, “You good?”

“You called me “Dream Keith.””

Lance raised an eyebrow at him, “Yeah, and? What did you want me to call you, The Ghost of Mullets Past?”

Keith let out a small laugh and turned his gaze back at Lance, “You do know what it can mean when you dream about another person, right?”

This caught Lance off guard. Of course he knew what it meant. He said as much, and Keith just rolled his eyes and went back to watching the sand intently.

“I dream about other people all the time.” Lance pointed out, “About a month ago I had a dream about Hunk engineering a robot to steal my jacket.”

  
“What about since then?”

  
“What?”

  
Keith glanced up at him, his eyes suddenly boring holes into Lance’s, “Think back starting four weeks ago, who’s been in your dreams since then?”

  
Lance frowned, sifting through his recent memories and coming up blank, “Um, no one? I don’t know dude, I don’t think I dreamt at all.”

  
“Are you joking?” Keith’s voice sounded like he’d aimed for humor, but his expression told Lance otherwise.

  
“No man, I’m not.” Lance frowned, Dream Keith was acting really strange, and Lance was starting to wonder if he might’ve been right about the significance of the dreams.

  
Keith on the other hand, was looking more and more like Lance had just slapped him in the face, “You’re sure? You can’t remember anything?”

“No, man.” Lance shifted, uncomfortable under the intensity of Keith’s stare.

Keith leaned away from Lance with a suddenly fearful expression, “So that’s why you never brought it up… But I remember every night…”

“Maybe you’ve just been having normal dreams about me.” Lance set a hand on his arm reassuringly, “Maybe this is the first one.”

“No.” Keith shook his head, curling further into himself, “No, the other times felt nothing like dreams. They felt like…” He trailed off and glanced up at Lance through his eyelashes, “Besides, I know you’ve been having them too. We wake up at the same time every morning even when we’re not under attack.”

“Okay but,” Lance licked his lips anxiously, “A similar sleep schedule doesn’t mean-“

“I knew your birthday.” Keith glanced at him, “The other day we were hanging out and Hunk was trying to get you to tell him your birthday and I knew it because you told me a few weeks ago. In here.”

Lance froze, his mind churning sluggishly, “Maybe you heard it at the Garrison-“

“Your Aunt on your mother’s side is names Rosita.” Keith announced confidently, “And your brother used to steal your legos when you were a kid so one day you gave his action figure to the dog in revenge.”

Lance’s eyes widened, “Keith…”

“But you don’t remember telling me any of that…” Keith broke eye contact suddenly and faced the sand, “Which means I’m right about the dreams, but what does that say about us?” Lance just stared at him, still at a loss for words. He’d never heard of this happening before.

Suddenly, Keith’s head rose, and his eyes met Lance’s slowly, “Lance… What if you’re my soulmate, but I’m not yours?”

Lance opened his mouth to respond when the edges of his vision began to fade, the outline of Keith getting blurrier and blurrier, but he could still clearly see the horror in Keith’s eyes like it was burned into his mind. Until he woke up.


	2. Zero to One Hundred

Lance stretched as he sat up in bed, relieved that today wasn’t a day that he woke up to the sound of blaring alarms and panic coursing through his gut. As he made his way to the kitchen he noticed that Keith’s door remained firmly shut, which was odd considering they always woke up at the same time. Every day… Without fail…

It was kind of strange actually, but he chalked that up to sharing a wall with the guy. He didn’t think he was that loud in the morning, but who knew?

He debated knocking on the door to make sure Keith was alright, but ultimately decided against it. As much as Lance loved riling him up, first thing in the morning seemed a little inhumane, even for him.

He came to regret that decision though, because he didn’t see Keith at all until the afternoon when they’d scheduled a group training session. The guy looked even rougher around the edges than usual, and he was drenched in sweat like he’d spent the bulk of his morning training by himself, which, to be fair wasn’t entirely out of character.

What was out of character, however, was the fact that he seemed to be wholeheartedly ignoring Lance, to the point where even openly taunting him didn’t even garner a reaction.

Allura pulled him aside afterward and asked if everything was okay between the two of them, and Lance honestly didn’t know how to answer. They didn’t really get along all the time, but this time he couldn’t recall for the life of him what he’d done to deserve the wrath of Keith.

Well, he supposed Keith _had_ been acting strange around him since the attack on the castle back on Arus, but Lance thought he’d gotten over that by now…

Before entering his room for the night, he stopped to stare at the door beside his. Keith was probably in there sharpening his knife or brooding or something. Stamping down his pride, Lance knocked a few times on the door, satisfied with the way the sharp knocks echoed in the empty hallway.

“Keith, buddy, you in there?”

He got no reply so he knocked again, “Dude, I don’t know what I did to get your mullet in a bunch, but whatever it is …” He paused, not really knowing how to finish that, “if you want to take it up with me, you know where to find me.”

He stepped back facepalming. “You know where to find me?” Really Lance?

Just before he entered his own room he saw the light coming from under Keith’s door flick off, and he grit his teeth in frustration. Fine. If Keith wanted to play it this way, he’d let him. No use crying over brooding mullets.

-

Lance opened his eyes to find himself back at the Garrison. Nearly five months in space, and Lance could admit that he missed even this place. Just a little.

He seemed to be in one of the hangars where they kept some of the smaller vehicles like land rovers and hoverbikes. He’d never had access to this place, that was reserved for seniors and of course the officers and teachers, but boy had he tried to break in.

He and Pidge almost managed it once but got unlucky when Iverson happened to be on his way to the kitchen for a midnight snack.

He looked around himself, wondering if he’d be able to start one of these dream vehicles when he heard an engine rev somewhere behind him.

Wheeling around he caught sight of Keith – typical, of all people to beat him to the hangar – adjusting his goggles, casually seated in one of the hoverbikes, looking for all the world like that was where he belonged in the universe.

“Well?” He jumped when Keith shouted, twisting to shoot Lance a lopsided grin, “You coming?”

Lance glanced behind himself to make sure Keith was talking to him, and when he verified the fact that they were the only two in the hangar he turned back, eyeing the excited yet mischievous grin on Keith’s face. He catalogued that image for later analysis, mostly because it made his stomach do things he was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to do when he was looking at his arch rival.

“Come on Lance, we don’t have all day.”

Throwing his doubts to the wind, he jogged over, watching Keith’s lopsided smile shrink into a softer expression, and raised an eyebrow, “Where did you come from?”

He’d meant it jokingly, but Keith’s expression faltered for a brief moment, before he thrust out a hand, beckoning him onto the bike, “Just shut up and trust me.”

Ignoring the outstretched hand, Lance swung himself up onto the seat behind him, looking around for something non-Keithy to hold on to, “I swear to god man if you kill us-“

“Relax Lance,” Keith revved the engine one more time and Lance rolled his eyes because of _course_ Keith was one of _those_ people, “This is a dream, I’m pretty sure we can’t die.”

“What do you mean _pretty sure_ e- oH GOD!”

Lance’s swearing was ripped away by the air rushing by as Keith went full throttle off the starting line. Keith was the definition of the phrase “zero to a hundred,” Lance decided, only half aware of the fact that he’s latched his arms around Keith’s waist like they were in a rodeo, and Keith was the bull.

Keith let out a breathy laugh that caught Lance by surprise as they whipped off the road, headed directly into the desert. He loosened his grip a little and leaned back so he could watch the orange cliffs sailing by them at speeds he’d never dared go on a hoverbike.

Of course Keith had. At this point, Lance knew better than to be surprised.

Putting his trust in inertia, and Newton’s infamous three, he let go of Keith completely, throwing his hands up in the air like it was a roller coaster, and yelled as loud as he could manage, thrilled when the wind ripped this away from him too.

He heard Keith’s raucous laughter and grinned, surprised to hear such a carefree sound coming from the most tightly wound guy in the universe. He wanted to hear it again, as many times as Keith would allow.

-

The next day, Keith offered to pair up with him on a solo mission, and to his surprise they made it through the entire operation without a single argument. Allura and Shiro nearly cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still super excited about this fic, I've got a good portion of it planned out too ;)


	3. Tennessee

When Lance opened his eyes, he was greeted with entirely unfamiliar surroundings. A quick head swivel told him it was probably a park somewhere on Earth, judging by the monkey bars and jungle gym. It was cold out and a lot of the vegetation around him looked unfamiliar, so he assumed this wasn’t Cuba or Texas.

“It’s Tennessee.”

Lance jumped and glanced to his right to find Keith sitting on the grass beside him, gazing off into the trees, “Uh, what? Why Tennessee?”

Keith smiled ruefully, “I lived in a group home here for around six months or so when I was thirteen. It was the only time I was sent somewhere outside of Texas.”

Lance froze, not daring to look away from Keith, “Wait, if I’m in _your_ dream, does this mean…”

He trailed off, holding his breath as he watched Keith’s expression do something complicated, before settling on something just shy of carefully neutral, “Yeah, Lance. It’s a soul connection.”

“We’re soulmates.” Lance breathed out, feeling his heart flutter a little. He’d wanted a soulmate for as long as he’d been able to think in coherent thoughts.

His mother and father had been soulmates, of course; their soul connection had manifested as writing on both of their wrists, telling them the first words they would say to one another. They were so in love it sometimes gave Lance a toothache just watching them.

He’d always complain that they were being gross, but in all honesty Lance would’ve killed for someone who would love him the way his father loved his mother, and vice versa. The idea that there could be someone out there who was made to be his other half had always been the one thing he wanted most in the world.

Now in his dreams, in a playground in Tennessee, sat his soulmate. Literally within arm’s reach. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it being Keith, considering the guy acted like he hated Lance’s guts 70% of the time, but he did know that _this_ was the person he’d been waiting to meet his entire life.

Keith seemed to be sitting there, just waiting for his reaction, and Lance realized he’d been staring for almost a solid minute.

“Uh,” He cleared his throat when his voice came out rusty, “Hi.”

Keith seemed to breathe out a sigh of relief, a small smile growing on his face, “Hi yourself.”

Lance shoved his shoulder a little, “Come on dude, we just found out we’re freaking soulmates, and all you have to say is “hi yourself?””

“Well it’s not like the first words out of your mouth were poetry.” Keith rolled his eyes, but he’d uncrossed his arms, and was now nearly facing Lance completely, though Lance noticed their eyes never quite met.

“I know, I know, I’m just so…” Lance waved a hand around in an attempt to convey his scrambled thoughts, “I’m just so floored that this is happening right now.”

“Me too.”

Again, there was that underlying flat tone to Keith’s voice, like he was holding something back. Lance felt a sudden sinking feeling in his stomach. Was Keith disappointed it was him?

“What is it?”

Keith raised his eyebrows, “What’s what?”

“Are you disappointed?” Keith’s expression went through ten different emotions before Lance could put a name to any of them and he hurried to explain himself, “I mean you just seem like you’re not saying what you’re thinking.”

“Oh.” Keith settled back a bit, and Lance was painfully aware of his lack of contradiction, “No, I…” he seemed to argue with himself for a moment before settling on “I’m just tired.”

“What do you mean?”

Keith gave him a look and Lance was taken aback at the sadness and longing he saw there, “This isn’t the first dream I’ve had with you.”

“I don’t follow.” Lance frowned, and Keith sighed, “You’re saying we’ve had soul link dreams before today?”

“Yes.” Keith had leaned his head back to look at the sky, probably just so that he didn’t have to meet Lance’s eyes, “I’ve gotten dreams like this every night for almost six months now.”

“What?!” Lance’s eyes widened, “Keith this is awesome, that means we’re definitely… Wait,” he paused, his brain catching up to his mouth, “why does that make you tired?”

Keith still didn’t look at him, “Think about it, Lance. _I’ve_ been having these dreams for months. Just me. You don’t remember any of them, do you?”

Lance searched his memories desperately, realizing with a sinking feeling that Keith was right. He didn’t remember ever having a dream like this one before.

“Wait,” He realized, “So what does this mean-“

They both jumped nearly a foot in the air as something exploded above them, the sound reverberating through his ribcage like a grenade. He found himself searching for his bayard but stopped when Keith let out a laugh and pointed to the sky above them. He looked up just in time to catch the purple sparks fizzle out above them.

“Fireworks.” He realized.

“I was here for the Fourth of July,” Keith mumbled, seemingly lost in a distant memory.

Lance wasn’t ready to drop the topic of soulmates, but his next few attempts to speak were thwarted by fireworks exploding above them, and Keith didn’t seem too keen on picking up the conversation where they’d left off. Part of him wondered if Keith was the one causing the fireworks just to get out of talking.

Just as the light show seemed to end, the edges of Lance’s vision grew fuzzy, and he glanced over in time to catch Keith staring at him with an expression that made Lance realize that maybe, just maybe, Keith wasn’t disappointed after all.

-

Lance liked to irritate Keith. In fact he liked it a lot. But this time he really had no idea what he’d done to incur the silent treatment.

“Lance.” Hunk elbowed him, whispering, “What the heck did you do to Keith? He’s acting like you kicked his puppy, dude.”

Lance glanced over to where Keith was walking as far away from the rest of the group as possible. They were on some planet they’d just rescued – no big deal – and Allura and Shiro were leading the group. Allura was happily chatting to the alien king, or president, or whatever, while the rest of them meandered behind, enjoying the sunlight on their faces after weeks of being cooped up in the castle.

Everyone except Keith anyway. He was the only one with his helmet still on, and he hadn’t said a word to anyone since they’d disembarked from their lions.

Everyone could tell that Lance was the epicenter of Keith’s bad mood – as he always was – but for once he really didn’t have an explanation for it. It had started that morning while he and Allura were getting breakfast together in the kitchen.

Keith had walked in looking nervous and had asked if he could have a word with Lance, who had promptly told him something along the lines of “Can’t it wait, Mullet? I have a beautiful lady to flirt with here.”

… Okay apparently he did know why Keith was mad at him.

“Ugh okay fine.” Lance grumbled, waving off Hunk’s confused expression and making his way over to Keith, who was busy brooding to himself.

“Hey, man.” He carefully catalogued the way Keith jumped when he spoke, only half turning to look at him, “So, uh… earlier in the kitchen, was there something you needed to tell me?”

Keith’s expression suddenly got impossibly more guarded, and Lance blinked in surprise. Isn’t this what he wanted? To talk to him?

He watched as Keith pulled in a deep breath, just to let it go a moment later before going back to studying the strange Dr. Seuss-esque trees around them, “Never mind, Lance.”

Lance felt a sudden burst of irritation, “No man, I won’t “never mind.” You wanted to talk to me earlier, right? That’s why you’ve been in a bad mood all day, so why don’t you just talk to me?”

Keith opened his mouth as if to speak, but quickly shut it again, still not looking at him.

“Dude, just spit it out. I’m all ears.”

Keith finally turned to look at him, something in his eyes that Lance couldn’t quite put a name to, when Allura appeared at his shoulder, setting a hand on Lance’s arm, “You two might want to hurry up, you’re falling behind the rest of the group.”

“Oh. Sorry ‘Lura.” Lance hadn’t realized they’d stopped walking, but when he looked for the others they had moved at least sixty meters ahead of them.

He turned back to Keith to find him staring vacantly at Allura’s hand on his arm. Before Lance had the chance to ask, Keith had turned and was briskly walking toward the others. He and Allura shared a confused look, but Lance was still drawing blanks in the explanation department. Sometimes he just really didn’t understand Keith and his mood swings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't think I've ever posted chapters to a fic this quickly before... Someone please go yell at me in the comments so I have to keep it up...


	4. Ouch

“Keith?” Lance had opened his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar kitchen. A quick glance around showed him a scattering of dishes in the sink, and a few pictures of a father and his son decorating the walls and counter. At the small kitchen table sat Keith, whose back was to Lance, and was playing idly with the leaves of a weed-like plant in a small vase in front of him.

If Keith had heard his name being called, he didn’t show it, instead continuing to pluck the leaves off the sad looking plant.

“Hey man,” Lance let out a soft chuckle, going over to sit in the seat opposite him, “You’re going to kill it.”

As he sat, he got his first good look at Keith’s face, and was shocked to see his pinched expression, and telltale red rimmed eyes. As Lance sat there, lost for words, Keith sucked in a deep breath, letting out a humorless chuckle and finally meeting Lance’s gaze.

“Sorry,” He released his grip on the plant and leaned back a bit in his seat, “I didn’t mean to get all emotional on you.”

“Dude,” Lance breathed, “You don’t have to apologize to me, what’s wrong?”

I… It’s stupid,” Keith shook his head, “I’ve had years to get over it. I haven’t dreamt of this place since I was like thirteen, I don’t know why _now_ of all times…”

“What is this place?” Lance glanced around again, taking in all the pictures and odd color scheme, some sort of mismatch of Earthy colors like brown, green, and yellow, “Who’s house is this?”

He glanced back to Keith when he didn’t get an answer and found him watching him almost warily, and something clicked in Lance’s head, “This is your house?”

Keith traced a hand over the faded wallpaper next to him, nodding, “It was my dad’s place. We used to live here together before he… before he died.”

Lance almost felt like reaching out for Keith but decided against it; the last thing he wanted to do was scare him off. They all knew that Keith was an orphan – or possibly not, if the Blade was correct about his mother being Galra – but they also knew that Keith _never_ talked about his dad. In fact, Lance was pretty sure Shiro was the only one who knew anything at all about Keith’s past before the Garrison.

“We picked these a few days before.”

Lance startled when Keith spoke again, reaching out to continue his harassment of the poor plant, “We found a patch of them outside a cave we were exploring, and my dad grabbed a handful right before we left. He said it was because my mom used to do that back when she lived with us.”

The room fell silent again, and Keith seemed determined not to look at him, so after a few minutes enduring the quiet, Lance stood, wincing at the scraping noise his chair made against the floorboards. Keith gave him a confused look when he grabbed the vase from the middle of the table, the leaf he was currently abusing pulling off in his fingers.

Without saying anything, Lance carried the vase to the counter, relieved when the sink worked, and carefully filled it with water before bringing it back and setting it in front of Keith.

“These things need water to live, you know.” Lance pointed out with what he hoped was a reassuring smile, “That’s why it looks so pitiful… Just like your face right now.”

Keith let out a surprised laugh, and Lance felt himself smiling back tentatively. As he watched Keith watching him, he realized what felt so off about the situation.

“This isn’t a normal dream, is it?”

Keith glanced away, licking his lips, “No.” He replied, addressing the wall.

Lance struggled to reign in his emotions, if he overreacted right then he knew that Keith would immediately turtle, and it would be extremely difficult to coax him back out. After spending nearly a year in space with the guy - fighting side by side day by day - if there was anything that Lance knew for sure about Keith it was that he wasn’t as tough as he pretends to be. Emotionally anyway, physically he could probably bench press Shiro without too much trouble.

“Keith, I…” He trailed off. What do you say to the person you’ve just discovered is your soulmate, the same person you’ve spent years in a rivalry with, and only recently started to view as a good friend?

“You don’t have to say anything. It’s fine.” Keith wasn’t looking at him again, his arms were folded on the table, even though he seemed to be doing his best to subtly lean as far away from Lance as possible.

Lance frowned, taking in his uncomfortable position. It struck him that Keith didn’t seem the least bit surprised, but in fact looked… wary? Almost like he knew how Lance was going to react.

“Why does it feel like this isn’t the first time this has happened?” Lance blinked in surprise when Keith’s head jerked toward him, his eyes gaping.

“Wait, you remember!?”

“Remember what?” Lance watched as Keith’s expression slowly sank back to the carefully neutral expression he seemed to favor so much, “Wait are you… Have we had dreams like this before?”

“Yep.” Keith nodded, watching him carefully, “Every night.”

Lance struggled to remember the last time he even had a dream, let alone one like this… “Why don’t I remember?”

Keith let out a humorless chuckle, “I’ve been wondering that myself.”

Lance narrowed his eyes, “So you’re telling me, that we’ve had dreams like this every night for… however long, and you remember all of them, but for some reason I don’t?”

“Yep.” Keith nodded again, still watching him, and Lance thought he saw something flicker behind his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I do… sometimes.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck, “You don’t always react the same way, and it gets tiring to have to explain over and over so sometimes I just-“

“No I mean _me_ me. Like real life me.” Lance frowned, “Not that this isn’t real, I just-“

Keith winced, “Because I don’t know how you’ll react.”

Lance opened his mouth to protest, but then shut it again when he realized that truthfully, _he_ didn’t know how he’d react. He would like to believe that he’d believe him, but a small part of him was saying that it was possible he’d just laugh in Keith’s face.

I mean… he’d never heard of anything like this happening. The only reason _he_ himself believed it was because he was sitting here, in a dream that didn’t feel like a dream, in Keith’s childhood kitchen that he’d never seen before in his life.

“See?” Keith said in an uncharacteristically small voice, “Even you don’t know how you’ll react.”

“Keith…” Lance frowned, “That’s not… We’re teammates, we’re _friends_ , man, you can’t think-“

Keith shook his head, “Lance, you may not remember, but I do. It’s been over a year since these dreams started. I remember every single one. Every one. You don’t react the same way each time. Sometimes you believe me and it’s just awkward, but most of the time you don’t believe me at all, and a few times you even…”

He trailed off, and just by the look on Keith’s face, Lance didn’t want to know the horrible things he’d probably said or done to make him look like that. This explained all the random days that Keith seemed to hate him, or avoid him for no reason at all.

“There was once…” the expression on Keith’s face did something complicated before fixing on blank, “One time you believed me and it wasn’t awkward. It actually went okay, and it hurt even worse than the other times when I woke up the next day and you still didn’t remember.”

Lance sat as still as he could, not trusting his voice, and knowing that touch was the last thing Keith wanted at the moment.

“It’s been over a year.” Keith sighed, “I’ve given up hoping that I’ll wake up and you’ll remember. I’m glad that I get to spend this time with you here, but if I’m being honest it just feels like we’re on borrowed time.”

Lance frowned, “Keith, I don’t-“

Keith sent him a humorless smile, eyeing Lance’s face like it was the last time they’d ever see one another, “You’re my soulmate, Lance, I can feel it every time I look at you. But looking at everything else,” He sighed, “All the signs point to me not being yours.”

The pit in Lance’s stomach grew, and he sat forward quickly enough that Keith jolted backward, “Keith, there’s no way that’s true. I might not know how I feel about this whole thing right now, but I’ve never heard of anything like this happening between soulmates-“

“Since when have we ever been normal.” Keith laughed humorlessly, “Besides, I’m half Galra. Maybe their soulmate system works differently, like how Coran and Allura said it did on Altea.”

Lance shook his head, “I don’t believe that the universe would be that cruel.”

Keith’s eyes hardened, and he tore his gaze away from Lance’s, “I do.”

They sat in uncomfortable silence for what felt like eons, before Lance slowly stood, looking down at Keith, who seemed to be trying to hold something invisible back from showing on his face, “You may believe that, but I don’t. We’re friends, Keith. I’m not giving up on you.”

Keith didn’t meet his eyes when he said, “It doesn’t matter. You won’t remember any of this.”

“Keith.” Lance opened his mouth to say more, but Keith had stood as well, and was heading for the door leading out of the kitchen, “Hey, we’re not-“

He didn’t get to finish, because the edges of his vision began to blur, and before he could get another word out, the kitchen had vanished and he was plunged into darkness.

-

Lance woke up with a tightness in his lungs. Rubbing at his chest, he sat up and glanced around at the various surfaces in his room, noting the dust gathering in their corners. He hadn’t had an asthma attack since he was a kid, but it was better to be safe than sorry… maybe he could find Coran later and see if the castle had some sort of space vacuum. In the meantime, water would have to suffice.

As he made his way to the kitchen he passed Keith’s doorway and came to an abrupt halt when he heard a sharp thump and the muffled sound of Keith swearing. He wasn’t sure why he hesitated, the two of them had grown close since the black lion had chosen him, and Lance was even starting to entertain the idea that Keith was his best friend… but something still stopped him with his fist half raised to knock.

He stood frozen while he searched his mind for the reason behind his hesitance, but quickly hit a wall, so he took a step back and lowered his arm. Sometimes when it came to Keith it was best to trust his first instinct. So, it was with that thought in mind that he stepped away from the door completely and continued on his way to the kitchen, trying his best to push the sound of Keith swearing out of his head.

-

“What do you mean we’re “soulmates?”” Lance frowned, not quite able to believe what he was hearing.

Keith was standing in front of him, biting his lip nervously, with only a fence separating them. They were on Lance’s uncle’s farm back in Cuba. Lance was in the overalls he used to wear when he was a kid, although now his muck boots only went up to his calves instead of his thighs.

He’d been having a nice time reminiscing the old days when his family used to take trips here in the summer to help out a little. Or rather, that’s what his mom claimed they were doing. Truthfully he thinks she just brought them there for something to do when school let out.

Veronica and the older kids used to run around carrying hay and feeding pigs, but being the youngest definitely had its perks. He couldn’t be expected to work when his boots barely fit him, right? Rachel used to _hate_ when he pulled the “family baby excuse.”

When he’d opened his eyes to find himself back here, it was like being hit by a wave of nostalgia. Not quite as bad as when he found his thoughts wandering to the beach at Veradero, but close enough to set off the homing beacon in his chest.

He’d just gotten to the barn, fully intent on petting his favorite horse – peanut butter – when Keith had appeared. Not exactly the first face he was hoping to see. And then he’d dropped the soulmate bomb on him.

“No.” Lance shook his head, “No fucking way.”

Keith’s hands were balled into fists, and he seemed to be holding himself back from climbing over the rickety old wooden fence, “You have to believe me. It’s been over a month, you have to remember at least _one_ -“

“Look,” Lance folded his arms, “can’t you go bother someone else’s head hole? Or go sharpen your knives, or whatever else weirdos like you dream about.”

Keith took a step back, looking like Lance had shoved him, “I’m trying to tell you, I _can’t._ I’ve been dreaming about you for almost a month! It’s a soul link, that’s the only explanation.”

Lance narrowed his eyes, “Then why don’t I remember any of this?”

Keith let out a sound of frustration, throwing his hands up, “I don’t know! That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”

“Well maybe it’s just Voltron messing with you because we don’t get along.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Yours!” Lance shot back, “Maybe if you weren’t so grumpy and stuck up, this wouldn’t be happening. Did you ever consider that _maybe_ , this might be _your_ fault? That you might just be doing this to yourself?”

Keith looked like he was about to grind his teeth into shards, and Lance felt a savage sort of pleasure burning in his gut.

“It’s not Voltron.” Keith forged ahead while Lance was busy rolling his eyes, “You don’t feel anything?”

“Nope. Nada. No way.” Lance shook his head, “The universe isn’t cruel enough to make the two of us each other’s soulmates.”

Keith made a noise like Lance punched him in the gut, and turned away before Lance could say anything else, storming off toward the house. Lance watched him go with a twisting feeling in his chest. He wasn’t sure why Keith was taking this so hard, but he could tell he’d done some sort of damage.

Just as he was dredging up the courage to go after him, Lance’s vision began to blur.

-

The next day Keith let a drone shoot lance in the back during training, and it took both Shiro and Allura to keep them from tearing each other to pieces.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that almost hurt to write... sometimes I wonder why I'm so mean to Keith in all of my fics... poor guy honestly just needs a break. Maybe the next story I write will be fluffy, would anyone be interested in that? Or should I just stick to angst lol


	5. Twister

“Please no more space twister.” Hunk groaned, tilting his head to rest it against the back of the couch, “My shoulder still hurts from the last time.”

“Yep, yeah, I agree with Hunk.” Keith nodded emphatically, and Lance found himself thinking about how incredibly endearing he looked.

It was one of their rare off days; Allura and Coran were working on maintenance repairs to parts of the ship that had gotten damaged during their last fight, and Shiro had begrudgingly left to go take a nap after the rest of the paladins had nagged him about getting more rest. Now the four remaining members of team Voltron were all slumped together in the lounge, trying to decide what to do with themselves.

“Fiiiiine.” Lance rolled his eyes, putting the box away with a sigh, “Well that’s the last of the board games, and we’ve already gone through all of those weird Altean movies that Coran keeps recommending…”

“Haha oh yeah.” Hunk chuckled, “You know I love Coran, but those movies are so cheesy!”

“Plus half of the video files are corrupted after 10,000 years of sitting in a drawer.” Pidge rolled her eyes, “Even I can’t fix some of them.”

“Hey Keith, remember that video from the weblum?” Hunk snorted, “I don’t think we got a single piece of useful information from that.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “Yeah, we almost died.”

“Hah, classic.” Hunk wiped a tear from his eye as he continued to chuckle, and the rest of the paladins raised their eyebrows at one another, each distinctly recalling precisely how unamused Hunk had been at the time.

“What I want to know,” Pidge raised an eyebrow, “is who exactly was the first person to get themselves stuck inside a weblum, see the weird blue crystals it excreted and say to themselves, “hey, this looks like something we should make a wormhole device out of!”

Before anyone could respond they heard the sound of someone clearing their throat from the doorway, and turned to find Allura standing there with an amused expression, “That would be Coran’s great great uncle Hiram… He was quite the character.”

“So, was everyone in Coran’s family like… that?” Hunk twirled a finger next to his temple in the universal signal of “completely nuts.”

“I’m afraid so.” Allura chuckled, coming over to sit next to Lance on the couch, “So what are you all up to?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Lance sighed dramatically, “What are you doing here anyway princess? I thought you were helping Coran?”

“Apparently I’m not very good at recalibrating the antimatter particle accelerator… or at least that’s what I gathered when it began to rattle rather violently, and Coran ushered me from the room.” She glanced around at all of their apprehensive expressions, “Not to worry though, Coran has everything under control… I believe.” They all jumped and glanced at the ceiling suspiciously as they heard a loud clanging from above. Lance suddenly wished he had his armor on.

“So anyway, princess, any ideas on what we should do on our first day off in… weeks is it?” Lance glanced around at the others, who mostly nodded in confirmation. He noted that Keith had gotten suddenly quiet again, his arms folded as he stared at the ground seemingly deep in thought. Lance wished, not for the first time, that he could read minds; if only to get a glimpse of what goes on underneath that mullet of his.

“No specific activities come to mind - especially since you all seem to dislike Coran’s movie collection so much - but there is one thing I have been meaning to ask…” She glanced over at Hunk, “I hope this isn’t incredibly rude of me, but those words on your arm… what do they mean?”

Hunk glanced down at the writing on the inside of his forearm, some sort of loopy language that didn’t like to stay within any understandable lines, and shrugged, “I don’t know, I don’t recognize the language, and neither does anyone else I know. It’s my soul mark though, so I’m assuming it’ll become clear when I meet the person… Wait a minute, do Alteans have those? I mean, soulmates?”

Allura’s eyes lit up, “We do in fact! On Altea however our marks appear all over our bodies, not only do they match the shape of our soulmate’s but the color of their eyes as well.” She rolled up her sleeve and showed them the inside of her own forearm where a few delicate lines snaked and looped around her skin, disappearing into the edge of her sleeve, they were the same pinkish purple color as her facial markings.

“Woah that’s so cool!” Lance’s eyes widened, he couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed; a small part of him had always hoped that maybe Allura would turn out to be his soulmate. However, surprisingly enough, he realized after a moment that he really wasn’t as unhappy as he would’ve expected.

“Right?” She beamed at him before glancing over at Hunk, “I could say the same for your markings.” She glanced around at the rest of them, suddenly hesitant, “I have noticed however that the rest of you do not possess any words on your arms… does that mean that you three haven’t gotten your markings yet?”

“No no no,” Lance corrected her hurriedly, “On Earth it’s a little different, our soul marks come in a lot of different forms.”

“My parents were color blind until they met one another.” Hunk smiled, and Allura turned to him with fascinated eyes.

“Mine didn’t have any obvious marks.” Lance frowned, “Neither of them even knew they had a soulmate until one day they were talking, and both of their chests started to glow.” He glanced back at Allura’s arm, “It must be nice having only one type of soul mark, you guys don’t have to wait and guess whether or not you have one in the first place.”

“Honestly.” They all glanced over to Keith, who – judging by the color his face was turning – hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Lance was about to ask what he had meant by that when Allura gasped.

“Wait, you’re telling me that not everyone on Earth has a soulmate?”

“Uh, yeah…” Lance rubbed the back of his neck, “Some people’s soul marks never show up, or sometimes they don’t appear until the person is like in their 70’s…”

“That’s horrible.” Allura’s eyes widened as she glanced around at Lance, Keith, and Pidge, “So none of you know whether or not you have soul mates?”

Keith coughed quietly and Lance glanced over to him, again wondering why he was acting so odd. He had a strange expression on his face like he was holding something back, and he seemed to have subconsciously burrowed deeper into his spot on the couch. Lance let it go though, sensing that if Keith wanted to share whatever was bothering him, he would.

“No we don’t… It’s so annoying having to wait and guess all the time.” Lance sighed, glaring at pidge when she snickered.

“Or you could just not stress and worry all the time.”

“Okay, easy for you to say, you’re ace/aro.”

At Allura’s quizzical look Pidge explained, “It means I’m not really interested in all that stuff.”

Lance snickered, “Pidge’s whole family is science-sexual.”

“My parents were soulmates,” Pidge folded her arms, “They saw each other in dreams.”

Lance didn’t miss the way Keith sat up suddenly at this, and the whole room turned to look at him, “Uh, have _you_ had dreams about your soulmate or something?” Lance felt a tinge of jealousy. Of _course_ , Keith would find his soulmate before him.

“Oh no, no, no,” Keith waved hurriedly, “I’ve just been having a lot of, uh… nightmares recently. Well actually it’s more of a reoccurring nightmare I guess.” Keith brought his legs up onto the couch, folding them beneath him and setting his hands in his lap. At everyone else’s concerned expressions he waved a hand reassuringly, “It’s fine, guys, it’s been happening for a while. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“Well if you need to talk, buddy, we’re here.” Hunk patted him on the shoulder, and Lance was relieved to see Keith’s expression brighten just a fraction, “I used to get tons of nightmares when we first got shot into space, but they’re mostly okay now.”

“Same.” Pidge admitted.

Lance didn’t like the fact that the conversation had veered away from soulmates – one of his favorite topics of conversation - but grudgingly went along, “I actually didn’t get any nightmares… In fact,” He realized, “I don’t really think I’ve dreamt at all since we’ve come to space. Or at least since Arus anyway…”

“You know, not dreaming is a warning sign of being a psychopath.” Pidge pointed out helpfully.

“Hey!”

He cut off as Keith abruptly stood up, “I, uh…” He fidgeted when everyone turned to look at him, “I forgot I promised Shiro I’d train with him today… like now.”

“Okay,” Hunk blinked in surprise as Keith made toward the door, waving, “See you…” But the door was already swishing shut behind him.

“Well that was weird…” Pidge raised an eyebrow, and Lance had to admit it was a pretty fishy exit. But this was also Keith they were talking about.

“Anyway,” Lance shook off the little voice that told him to go after Keith, one that had been getting steadily louder lately, “back to soulmates.” Pidge groaned, and he flipped her off.

Allura laughed, “You seem very interested in the subject.”

“Oh yeah, Lance has always talked about having a soul mate. It’s like all he ever wanted as a kid.” Hunk shot him an apologetic look, but he wasn’t wrong.

“Honestly,” Lance frowned, “I feel so bad for the people who never get one… I don’t really know what I would do if I found out I didn’t have a soulmate.”

-

When Lance opened his eyes he immediately wished he hadn’t. He was back in his old classroom at the Garrison, complete with white walls, dusty floors, and a fine coating of white powder on the floor just beneath the chalkboard. There were incomplete physics problems written on the board and every desk - despite being empty - had papers and books and calculators strewn over their surfaces like everyone had left in a hurry for a fire drill. It was just like he remembered it.

He stood and walked up to the board, locating the last pitifully short piece of chalk left in the tray, and changed one of the plus signs to a minus in the last line of the problem.

“Wow, dick move.”

He turned to find Keith perched casually on a desk behind him, an amused expression on his face.

“Shut up.” Lance smiled wryly, “This is Iverson’s class, remember?”

“Oh right.” Keith glanced around the room apprehensively, “Carry on then.”

“Alright, just be my lookout.” Lance turned back to the problem and changed a ½ to a ¼, earning himself another chuckle from Keith.

“I thought Iverson loved you.”

Lance felt himself stiffen, but didn’t turn from his work, “I thought you didn’t remember me from the Garrison.”

He glanced back over his shoulder in time to catch Keith rolling his eyes, “And you don’t remember the bonding moment, right?”

For the record, he actually didn’t. But Lance didn’t want to have that argument all over again for the hundredth time, “Whatever, I seriously don’t know where you got that idea though.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “You were always raising your hand in his class, and he always picked you to go solve problems on the board.”

Lance stared at him for a moment, trying to see if he was joking before letting out a startled laugh, “Seriously dude? I only raised my hand so much because I was trying to prove I was better than you.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “Not that that was hard, I never answered questions.”

“Eh,” Lance waved a hand at him, “Whatever. Also, he only called on me to solve problems at the board because he knew I always struggled doing math in front of people.”

Keith frowned and Lance gaped at him, “You seriously didn’t notice?”

Keith shifted in his seat, suddenly looking uncomfortable, like Lance had caught him doing something he shouldn’t, “All I remember is him calling on you, I don’t really recall what problems you solved. It’s not like I ever really paid attention to what was on the board.”

Lance raised an eyebrow at him, wondering how he could have noticed Lance being called on but not remember how he’d epically embarrassed himself nearly every single time. Keith shifted uncomfortably again and Lance sighed, “Well I guess that’s probably a good thing. I was kind of a train wreck back then.”

“I never noticed.”

“You never noticed anything.”

“Well that’s ironic.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Keith smirked, but Lance thought he saw something painful in the corners of his eyes and the way his lips were set, “How were you a train wreck?”

Lance rubbed the back of his neck, “I don’t know, man. I just had this thing where whenever I had to solve problems in front of people I’d freeze. Like answering questions in class and doing homework on my own was one thing, but even in labs sometimes when it came to solving problems with Hunk and Pidge I would just sort of choke. I didn’t have enough confidence I guess.”

Keith said nothing, so Lance elaborated a little bit, “I think I just never thought I was good enough to be in the class in the first place, and I was scared to think that I was right, so I didn’t want to expose myself in front of people… it’s dumb I know-“

“No, it’s not.” Keith stood and put a hand on his shoulder, “Everyone has stupid irrational fears like that, you just needed to find a little confidence.”

“Easy for you to say.”

Keith said nothing to that, and Lance wondered if he’d been wrong in saying it. Before he had time to back-track, Keith was already speaking again, “You also had Pidge and Hunk as lab partners, so I feel like anyone would feel like an idiot around them.”

“You’re so right.” Lance laughed, and was relieved when Keith joined in. After a surprisingly unawkward moment, Keith withdrew his hand and Lance felt himself missing the touch. Keith then turned to Iverson’s desk and flipped open a text book to a random page, pulling out his knife as he did.

“You want to see how to cut a page out of a textbook in a way that makes it look like it was never there?”

Lance let out a breathy laugh, unable to tear his eyes away from the mischievous glint in Keith’s, “Of course you still have your knife, even in a dream.”

The glint in Keith’s eyes died for a second and Lance could sense that he’d said something wrong, but as soon as the feeling had come over him, Keith was already bent over the book, “Just shut up and come over here.”

Lance laughed, shaking off the weird feeling from before and going to stand next to Keith, admiring his handiwork. This was, after all, only a dream.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in like a week, midterms are always a particular sort of hell... As always I hope you liked this chapter, and I love to hear your feedback, so if you have any thoughts, comments, or suggestions feel free to drop a comment :)


	6. Keith is a Basic Bitch

When Lance opened his eyes he nearly groaned out loud. He’d never really been a big fan of churches, even when he was a kid. His grandmother used to make the rest of his family attend on holidays, but for the most part, his parents had given up on Sunday mornings around the tenth time in a row Lance had pretended to be sick just to skip.

It’s not that he really had anything against churches, it’s just that mass was so long and boring, especially when he had a hard time sitting still even at the best of times. The churches themselves were just so big and empty, that they always made him feel alone. He swiped at the layer of dust on top of the pew in front of him and scowled when it darkened his finger tip.

He glanced around at the rest of the gloomy room, only then noticing a dark figure standing in front of a row of candles lined up on a table. Only the one directly in front of the figure was lit. Recognizing the signature mullet, even in the dim interior of the room, Lance stood, casually making his way over to stand next to Keith.

“Who’s that for?” He asked, pointing at the lit candle.

Keith just shrugged, still staring at the stained glass window in front of them, “No one in particular.”

Lance could tell he was lying, but he also knew that no amount of needling would get Keith to tell him the truth, so instead he followed his gaze to the stained glass window, smirking to himself when he recognized the scene.

He didn’t need two years of Sunday school to recognize that one; it was the old myth of the original humans. The ones with two heads, four arms, four legs and two hearts. His eyes trailed down the window following the progression of the little people as they slowly split in two, until they stood in a neat row at the bottom, the only thing still connecting each pair were their hands. It was the old myth of how soulmates had come to be.

Suddenly, a funny feeling overtook his senses, and he glanced around, only then noticing a what was off about the room. One, the details were incredibly crisp for a building that he’d never actually been to. Two, the scene in the window was from Greek mythology, not Christian. And three, Keith looked like he’d either swallowed an entire lemon, or was on the brink of tears. Considering that this wasn’t a normal dream, Lance felt that it was safe to assume the latter.

“Uh dude?” He took a tentative step closer, reaching a hand toward Keith’s shoulder, surprised when Keith made no move to stop him, “Are you alright?”

Keith finally turned from the widow, his eyes meeting Lance’s. They held some sort of flat emotion that, in his opinion, was even worse than if he’d been in tears, “No, I’m not.”

They both stood stock still for a moment, each holding their breath before Lance quickly pulled Keith into a hug. The way he tensed up at first - like he wasn’t used to physical affection - made Lance’s heart clench even more, but after a moment Keith’s arms came up to wind around his back, and suddenly Lance found it difficult to breathe as Keith‘s hands fisted in the back of his shirt.

“Okay.” Lance squeezed him back, chuckling nervously, his stomach flipping when Keith rested his forehead in the crook of his neck, “What the hell is going on?”

Keith mumbled something into his neck that sounded suspiciously like the word “nothing,” but Lance wasn’t having any of it.

“Bullshit.”

Keith lifted his head just enough to say the words, “Don’t you feel anything?”

Lance froze, wondering if Keith was referencing the butterflies currently eating at the inside of his stomach, but then realized what he was actually talking about, “The dream.”

Keith scoffed, “Dream.”

“So it isn’t a dream.” Lance tried to contain the thousand and one emotions that immediately sprung up in his chest, still baffled by Keith’s reaction, “Is it… Keith, are we soul-“

Before he could get out the word “mates” Keith pushed away from him roughly, and Lance was afraid he was going to make a run for it but was surprised when he just plopped dejectedly down on the pew a few feet behind them.

“Yes, we are.” He said matter of factly, “What do you want to know?”

Lance gaped like a fish for a moment before setting his hands on his hips, “Wait a minute, why are you acting like this isn’t news to you?” It dawned on him suddenly, “How long have you known?”

Keith shot him a wry look, and suddenly the dark circles under his eyes were thrown into sharp relief by the light from the singular candle, “A while.”

Lance rolled his eyes, “What, so you’ve already been having dreams or something? Why wasn’t I included in this?”

Keith’s expression got impossibly stormier for a second before quieting to something more akin to tired acceptance, “This isn’t the first time I’ve had a dream like this. This also isn’t the first time _you’ve_ had a dream like this.” He must have caught sight of the look on Lance’s face because he quickly added, “Before you say anything, I don’t know any better than you do why I remember and you don’t.”

They were both silent for a long time, and Keith looked up with uncertainty in his eyes as Lance walked over to sit next to him, not trusting himself to touch Keith again, “Is that why you look like… this?” He gestured vaguely at the way he was slouched, his shoulders hunched nearly to his ears, and his hands didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves.

“Thanks, man.”

“No seriously Keith, I’ve known for a while that something was off, but I just thought it was like some deep dark past trauma, you know,” Lance sighed, “like something you’d only tell us when you were ready. How long have you been keeping this to yourself?”

“A year and three months.” Keith whispered, his hands stilling in his lap, and Lance felt a chill run up the back of his neck, “For a year and three months, I’ve kept every night to myself.”

“Holy shit. Keith…” Lance reached out, and Keith flinched back, “Why don’t you say anything?”

“Because you wouldn’t believe me!” Keith growled, pulling away from him, “Or worse, maybe you’d reject me or tell me you were in love with Allura-”

“I’m not-”

Keith shot him a withering look and Lance, despite his best effort, felt himself grow defensive, “If you had told me about this a long time ago we’d have worked something out by now. This is just like you to keep a secret until you explode… You know someday your own sadomasochism is going to kill you.”

“Yeah well that’s better than telling you, and then losing you again when your real soulmate.”

“When I – What??” Lance blinked at him uncomprehendingly. His _real_ soulmate?

Keith glanced away from him, “Your real soulmate.”

“Uh, wouldn’t that be you?”

“Think about it, Lance,” Keith sighed, the deep weariness returning to his eyes, “I’m the only one who remembers these dreams. Every time I look at you I get this feeling in my gut and I _know_ that you’re it for me. That you’re my soulmate. But it’s been made abundantly clear after a year of this torture that I’m not yours.”

Lance opened his mouth to refute that, but Keith shot him a look, “Please don’t try to argue. You know that I’m right.”

“You may have a point, but that doesn’t prove anything.” He stared at Keith defiantly, hoping to see his expression lighten up a bit, but was dismayed when the exact opposite happened.

Keith stood, pacing a short distance away like he wanted to leave, but couldn’t make himself. After a short while he stopped and put his head in his hands, “Damnit… Maybe it would’ve been better if I’d joined the Blade like I was considering.”

Lance’s eyes widened, “You what?!”

Keith shrugged, “Remember that time you came into my room looking all depressed and told me that you were going to step down from Voltron now that Shiro’s back? I thought about leaving so that you could have Red and Shiro could have Black, and Allura could have Blue… But then Allura and Shiro found a way to share Black and we switched back to our regular lions and I…” He sighed, “Honestly I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to go. You guys are the only family I’ve known since my dad, and even though we found my mom on that mission a few months ago, sometimes I look at you and I just think that maybe it would’ve been better for all of us if I’d just left.”

Lance sat there in stunned silence for a moment, before standing up, “There is no world in which you leaving would have been the better choice for any of us.”

“No just… stop. Please.” Keith lifted a hand as if to ward him off, turning his head like he couldn’t stand to look at Lance any longer, “It’s always worse when you try to convince me that things are going to be okay.”

Lance’s mouth snapped shut, his mind turning slowly as he thought carefully about what to say next. After a moment of not coming up with anything even resembling a solution to this mess, he sighed, “Then what do you want me to do?”

Keith paused, seeming genuinely surprised at the question. Lance let him think for a moment but regretted it the second Keith met his eyes again, “Nothing. I’d like you to do nothing.”

-                                                                                                                     

The next day Lance felt like slamming his head into a wall as Keith skirted around him in the hallway, ignoring his quiet “good morning” in favor of practically running in the direction of the training deck.

He honestly didn’t know what he’d done… He thought they were past this? He couldn’t even remember the last time this had happened, the last time Keith had randomly decided that he hated Lance for the day.

The old Lance would have immediately brushed it off, not bothering himself with Keith’s mood swings, but now he was just lost. He stood there in the center of the empty hallway for what felt like forever, debating back and forth whether or not he should go after Keith. In the end “not” won, if only because Hunk and Pidge had come around the corner and asked him for his help with something sciency before he could come to a decision.

He glanced back once toward the way Keith had gone, trying to convince himself that if something was really bothering him, Keith would come to him on his own terms.

-

Lance opened his eyes to find himself on some sort of dirt path in the middle of the woods somewhere unfamiliar to him. He glanced around to see if he could recognize any sort of landmark or anything, before the realization hit him like a truck and he took a few staggered steps backward, clutching his chest as it became suddenly hard to breathe.

“Keith!” Lance choked out, his mind still reeling as he wheeled around, “Keith!”

He heard a small snap to his left and turned to find Keith standing a few meters away with a carefully closed expression, the only thing that betrayed his true thoughts were his eyes, which were full of a fragile sort of hope.

“Keith.” Lance opened his mouth to say more, but found the words stuck in his throat as his eyes were stuck on Keith’s face.

They both stood frozen, staring at one another, for what felt like forever before Keith took a shaky step forward, “Lance?”

Lance’s face broke out in a grin and he rushed forward, grabbing Keith by both biceps and wheeling them around in dizzying circles, “Keith, I remember!”

“What?” Keith dug his heels in, bringing them to a stop, his hands suddenly wrapped around Lance’s biceps like vices, “Are you joking? Please tell me this is real.” His eyes were wide, and he couldn’t seem to keep his mouth all the way closed, half formed words and questions threatening to burst out.

Lance let out a breathy chuckle, watching the way Keith’s features calmed fractionally, “I’m not. I remember our conversation last night, the one in the church.”

Keith’s face did something complicated, “Just last night?”

Lance’s smile faltered, and he blinked as he went to search his memory prior to the night before and was met by a strangely familiar wall of black.

“Just… Just last night.” Lance bit his lip when Keith seemed to deflate a little, “But hey! It’s a start, right? Have I ever remembered anything before?”

Keith shook his head, a little hope returning to his eyes, “No. Never.”

They stared at one another for a few seconds, neither of them really knowing what to do, “So uh…” Lance raised his eyebrows, “What comes next?”

Keith shrugged, still looking at a loss for words, “I never actually thought this would happen, so… I don’t know.”

Lance smiled at his delightfully perplexed expression, knowing that deep down Keith was probably still in shock, “How about you fill me in on all these dreams I’ve apparently been missing out on.” He extended an arm, which Keith took after only a brief hesitation, and began to lead them both down the dirt path.

“Well it all started the night I opened my eyes to the messiest dorm room I’d ever seen in my life-” Keith began with a wry smile.

Lance frowned, “Why do I feel like you’re talking about mine?”

-

He woke up the next morning to loud knocking on his door and, after stumbling out of bed and briefly attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes, opened it to find Keith with the most outrageous bedhead Lance had ever seen. He was panting like he’d run a marathon even though his own door was like three meters to the left.

“Please tell me you remember.”

“Well good morning to you too Mr. Frantic Pants.” Lance smiled at his exasperated expression, smirking and leaning against the doorframe.

“Lance don’t fuck with me, please.” His eyes looked desperate and Lance immediately let go of his smug air, telling that this wasn’t the time to tease him.

“I…” Lance frowned, “I’m gonna need you to be more specific. Remember what exactly?”

Keith’s shoulders slumped and he leaned heavily against the doorframe, “I… It’s nothing. If you remembered you’d know what I was talking about.”

Lance took in the bags under his eyes, and the outrageous way his hair stuck up on the right side, and frowned, “Is this about that dream?”

“What?”

“The reoccurring nightmare you mentioned a couple weeks ago.”

“Uh,” Keith still wasn’t meeting his eyes, “Kind of, yeah.”

Lance frowned. Maybe this was why he’d been acting so strange around him yesterday. Maybe his nightmares involved Lance.

“Come on, man,” He slung an arm around Keith’s shoulders, turning them toward the kitchen, “Why don’t we talk about this over some space coffee? Food always cheers me up after a nightmare.”

Keith shrugged out from beneath his arm, backing away, “You know, I think I’m good actually. Thanks for the offer though.”  With that he awkwardly turned and headed back to his own room.

Lance watched in concern as Keith’s red lion pajamas disappeared through the doorway. He’d really thought they’d been better friends lately… in fact he was even starting to consider the notion that Keith might very well be his _best_ friend. But apparently Keith still wasn’t comfortable around him. Or maybe it was just something he’d done. Was this thing the reason why he was mad at Lance yesterday too?

He recalled the way Keith’s expression had sunk after Lance didn’t remember… whatever that was. If it was that important to Keith, why couldn’t he remember? Jeez maybe he really was the worst friend in the world.

In that case, he decided, it was time for some good old fashioned damage control.

“Hunk!” Lance swung into the kitchen, “Help me make cookies.”

It was a testament to their friendship that Hunk didn’t even look up before setting down his data pad and taking one last sip of space coffee before reaching for the nearest apron, “What kind?”

“Uh…” Lance blinked, realizing he didn’t even know what type of cookies Keith liked. He really needs to work on his memory, “I don’t know. Whatever Keith likes?”

Hunk raised an eyebrow at him, “What did you do this time?”

“Nothing! At least I think…” He folded his arms, “Look, whatever it was I’m trying to fix it now, okay?”

“Okay, okay.” Hunk snickered, “You two are ridiculous sometimes, you know that?”

Lance arched an eyebrow at him, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I don’t have time for your snark right now Hunk. The future of Voltron is riding on this!”

“More like the future of your lo-” He muttered the rest, and Lance didn’t ask, pretty sure he didn’t want to know.

“Chocolate chip, by the way.” Hunk remarked as he began to pull out mixing bowls and ingredients from the cupboards.

“What?”

“Chocolate chip, you know, the ones I figured out how to make a few months ago.” Hunk glanced at him, “Those are Keith’s favorite.”

Lance snickered at the revelation, “He would be that basic bitch.”

Hunk threw a spoon at him, “Chocolate chip cookies are a staple in every dessert repertoire known to man. How dare you call them basic.”

Lance looked him in the eyes, making sure he could read his lips as he enunciated, “ _Ba_ - _sic_.”

The resulting pandemonium delayed the time it should have taken them to bake a simple, basic batch of cookies by probably around an hour.

Eventually though, Lance found himself nervously bouncing on the balls of his feet, praying Keith wouldn’t just leave him hanging right outside his door.

“What is it, Lance.” The door swished open to reveal Keith, no longer in his pajamas, with a knife in one hand and a cleaning rag in the other.

Lance gulped at the sight of the knife and held out the plate of cookies like a peace offering, “Hey man, I’m sorry for whatever it is that I did to make you upset…” He paused, grimacing as he added, “and I’m also sorry for not _remembering_ whatever it is that I did to make you upset...”

Keith glanced quickly between the plate and Lance’s face, thankfully looking more curious than suspicious or infuriated, “Did you make these, or did Hunk?”

“I mean, I helped…” Lance shrugged sheepishly, of all his skillsets, baking wasn’t exactly one of them. He was more than happy to stir things and fetch ingredients if it meant he got to be the taste tester, however.

Keith’s expression turned immediately from curious to amused, and Lance was relieved to see the way his usual stony expression melted when he realized what Lance was trying to do. After a moment he stepped back to let him into the room. Lance only hesitated for a millisecond, honestly surprised that the cookie thing had worked, before heading in and settling himself on Keith’s bed.

Okay, so maybe he did know Keith better than he thought. It didn’t take long for them to strike up a conversation, joking and jiving as if that morning had never happened, and Lance felt warm inside as he watched the way Keith’s face lit up as he described the exact sound of an explosion blowing a Galra drone to bits. And yeah, maybe Lance felt something light flutter around in his chest when Keith took his first bite of a cookie and actually groaned out loud, but that was all irrelevant. What really mattered was that Keith was actually looking him in the eye again, and all was right in the universe.

-

Lance opened his eyes to find himself perched on the edge of the community pool near his childhood home, his legs dangling in the water up to his calves. Experimentally, he swished them back and forth, thrilled when the cool water felt real against his legs. These dreams really were something.

“Fancy seeing you here.”

He didn’t jump this time, in fact he was surprised how long it took Keith to arrive.

Lance scoffed, “Yeah, fancy. Now are you going to sit with me or what?”

 Keith seemed surprised, but sat down nonetheless, mimicking Lance’s position and swirling his own legs lazily through the water. Lance was delighted to note that the dream-land had seen fit to dress him in bright red swim trunks with cute little red lions all over them. He pointed this out gleefully and Keith nearly pushed him into the water.

After Keith stopped trying to drown him, they ended up sitting in silence for a few minutes - Lance was becoming more and more antsy by the second - before Keith eventually sighed and turned to face him, “So I bet you’re wondering what we’re doing here?”

Lance frowned at him, raising an eyebrow, “Not really, considering this place is from _my_ memories.”

 Keith glanced around them thoughtfully, “Well yeah, I guess it is. But I meant why _we’re_ here. The two of us. Together.”

“Uh, well that would be due to the fact that we’re soulmates…” Lance raised an eyebrow at him, confused why he was acting so weird.

“Wait, you remember?” Keith’s mouth dropped open, and he punched Lance in the arm, “Asshole! Why did you act like you forgot? You scared the hell out of me…”

“What do you mean I acted like I forgot?” Lance frowned, and Keith just rolled his eyes.

“You know, earlier, in real life.” He punched Lance in the arm again, “You said you didn’t remember and then had Hunk make me cookies in an attempt to “make up” for being a “bad friend.””

Lance stared at him in confusion for a moment before the previous day’s events came rushing back to him, “Oh shit.”

“Yeah…” Keith was giving him a strange look, “Oh shit is right, dumbass-”

“No, Keith,” Lance turned, grabbing him by the shoulders turning so they were facing one another, “I seriously didn’t remember. I woke up to you banging on my door, and when you asked, my mind just… went blank.”

Keith’s expression hadn’t changed since Lance had grabbed him by the shoulders, and Lance was starting to worry about the sudden stiffness in his posture. He was about to wave a hand in front of his face like in the movies when Keith suddenly surged to his feet, water splashing up around his legs.

“Fuck!” Keith was now pacing, his hands pressed tightly against the sides of his head, “I just…” He growled, “god fucking damnit! Why? Why now?!”

He punched the wall and Lance winced, hoping that the realness of these dreams didn’t translate to pain.

“Hey.” Lance stood slowly, walking over to where Keith had resumed his pacing, “Keith.”

Keith stopped pacing, but his hands stayed tightly pressed against the sides of his head, his eyes screwed shut, and his breathing shallow. Suddenly sure of himself, Lance placed his hands gently over Keith’s, breathing a sigh of relief when his eyes slowly opened, raising to meet his own.

“Hey, I don’t know why I didn’t remember earlier.” He watched as Keith winced, but didn’t break eye contact, “But I do know that this is the second night in a row that I remember our dreams, and that’s got to count for something. Even if it _is_ only in here.”

Keith slowly released his grip, lowering his hands, but Lance didn’t let go and continued on, “I know you said you’re worried that you’re not my soulmate, but Keith,” he tightened his grip on his hands, “this? This feels right.”

He felt a moment of self-consciousness when Keith didn’t immediately respond and was running through other things to say in his mind when Keith suddenly surged forward, his hands abandoning Lances in favor of cupping his jawline, an exact opposite from what he’d been doing a minute before.

It took Lance an embarrassingly long time to realize what was happening, and it wasn’t until Keith started to pull away that his mind unstuck itself enough for him to respond.

He smiled into the kiss as his hands came up to wind around Keith’s back, pulling him closer as he tilted his head, thrilled when he felt Keith do the same. He may or may not have actually groaned out loud when Keith’s hands found his hair, no doubt leaving a tangled mess in their wake, not that Lance could find the wherewithal to care.

After a minute or so they were forced to break apart, mostly because they were both smiling too much, and as he pulled away Keith broke into a fit of breathy laughs that he attempted, unsuccessfully, to smother in Lance’s shoulder.

Lance hugged him tighter, one hand coming up to sift through his hair, as he tried to contain his own grin. After he’d settled down a bit, Keith heaved a sigh, face still pressed against Lance’s collar, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

Lance moved his hand out of Keith’s hair to rub down his back, thrilled when he felt Keith shiver a little, “I think I’ve wanted to do that for a long time too.”

Keith stilled against him and raised his head off of Lance’s shoulder, and Lance scrambled to explain, “It’s not that I’m unsure, I just… I’m having trouble remembering things from real life.” He sighed when a bit of the fear returned to Keith’s eyes, “It’s like I remember everything, but when I try to pull out a particular memory it turns to water in my hands.”

“Like when you wake up and you can only remember a dream for a few seconds.” Keith groaned, “So basically everything got reversed.”

“I guess.” Lance frowned, “But hey, at least I remember in here. And out there I remember everything from out there.”

Keith stared at him with an unreadable expression, “So what you’re saying is that essentially there are two Lances. One here, and one there.”

Lance bit his lip, “I mean I’m the same person. Just… missing a few pieces.”

“This is so messed up.” Keith pulled away, but when he saw the look on Lance’s face he scrambled to explain, “Not that any of this is your fault! I guess the universe just has a grudge against me or something.”

Lance felt his expression soften, “Things could get better. I mean I used to not remember anything, and yet here we are…”

Keith offered him a small smile, “That’s true.”

“And at least we have this,” He threaded his fingers gently through Keith’s, “Here.”

“Yeah,” Keith rolled his eyes in a weak attempt at humor, “Until you get a girlfriend in real life. Would it count as cheating, if it’s here?”

“Why? Does the idea of being my mistress enthrall you?” Lance wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Keith punched him on the arm.

“Ow.” Lance pouted, “That’s the third time tonight that you’ve hit me.” He turned to the empty pool and cupped his hands over his mouth, “Domestic abuse! My soulmate is hurting me!”

“Stop it!” Keith clapped a hand over Lance’s mouth, “Idiot.” He was grinning so much the insult lacked any sort of bite.

“No.” Lance pulled his hand away from his mouth, turning back to the pool, “Keith Kogane is the cutest soulmate in the universe!”

“Lance, I swear to god…” Keith laughed as Lance’s voice bounced around the room.

“Keith Kogane is the best! Even his mullet isn’t that-” Lance was cut off as Keith tackled him, surprised when his back hit the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay wow, that chapter ended up being a lot longer than I intended... You're welcome? Sorry? Either way, if you liked this chapter feel free to leave a comment about anything you liked/disliked, any general dismay at my mistreatment of Keith, and of course you can always yell at me to update more because then my lazy ass actually feels pressured to do it, thanks! :) - MDL


	7. Mia Cucina

“Come on!”

As soon as Keith had appeared in the dream, opening his eyes to find himself in the middle of what was surely to him a foreign city, Lance had already been there, grabbing his hand and tugging him along.

Keith’s face immediately split into a wide grin, “Where are we going?”

“On our first official date.” Lance glanced over his shoulder and winked, trying not to laugh when Keith’s face turned beet red.

After only a few minute of walking, Lance directed them into a tiny Italian restaurant called Mia Cucina. The building had a little chalk board menu on the sidewalk out front advertising almost exclusively pizza and pasta, and luckily for them, the lights were on, an open sign hanging on the door.

The inside was warm, and the walls were decorated with black and white photos, presumably taken in Italy, ranging from vineyards to stills of couples sharing huge plates of pasta on the waterfront.

Lance had come here with his family often as a kid; mostly because their tastes widely ranged, and, of course, everyone likes Italian food. The little restaurant was family owned, and all the food was home cooked, which obviously meant it was the best thing he’d ever tasted… He missed it every time he was forced to eat another one of Coran’s food goo experiments.

The main reason he’d decided on this little place the moment he’d opened his eyes, however, was because he knew that even back on earth Keith had rarely had the opportunity to go to places like this. At least not since his father had died, and now that they were stuck in space, he probably wouldn’t get to again.

“There’s never anyone else in these dreams with us.” Keith pointed out slowly, breaking Lance out of his thoughts, and it struck him suddenly that they didn’t have anyone to cook or take their orders.

“…Right.” Lance sighed, feeling his plan for a perfect first date crumbling around him.

“We can just… make the food I guess?” Keith suggested awkwardly, and Lance just smiled, relieved to have an option B.

“Do you even know how to cook?”

“I’ve watched Shiro do it.” Keith said hesitantly, probably noting the dubious expression on Lance’s face, “And Hunk.”

 _Oh boy._ “Well…” Lance took Keith’s hand in his own, leading him toward the kitchens, “Let’s just see how this goes...”

“Time-a to make-a some pizza!” Lance gave his best (horrible) impression of an Italian accent, glowing when Keith bit his lip to keep from laughing. He rolled up his sleeves and set to rummaging around in cupboards for any ingredients and supplies that weren’t already out. There weren’t many surprisingly… perhaps the god of first dates actually was on his side that night.

Once they had an adequate array of utensils and appliances, the two of them looked down at the table, and then at one another.

“Can we even eat in here?” Keith asked, clearly meaning the dream world.

“I don’t know I guess we’ve never tried.” Lance rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, once again reduced to hoping that this whole thing wasn’t going to end up a total bust.

Keith didn’t respond but to square his shoulders and start rolling out the dough they’d pilfered from the fridge, and before they knew it, the kitchen was a mess around them.

It’d started out as Keith bumping into him, spilling nearly a quarter of a bag of flour on his front, and Lance retaliating by shoving a handful of grated mozzarella in his face. Next they ended up in a fight about pizza toppings (Keith wanted banana peppers and mushroom, and Lance had decided that he toutly drew the line at mushroom) and then of course Keith tried to gut Lance with a pizza slicer for slapping his ass with a hand covered in flour.

The pizzas never actually made it into an oven, and Lance was pretty sure he was covered in more sauce than the actual food was, but he couldn’t find it in himself to complain as Keith pushed him up against the counter, gently tracing his thumb over Lance’s bottom lip in a way that made Lance shiver.

“You have flour on your mouth.”

“Ugh.” Lance groaned, “Can you get chapped lips in a dream? I’m totally going to have to borrow some space chapstick from Allura-“

Keith cut him off with his lips and Lance happily acquiesced, quietly relishing in the fact that he was probably leaving floury handprints all over Keith’s clothes. _Property of Lance._ He thought smugly.

If “going according to plan” was the measurement of success for their first date, then they’d failed miserably. _Spectacularly_ , you might even say… But Lance couldn’t say he was unhappy with the results as he closed his eyes, feeling himself drift into consciousness tucked happily into Keith’s arms.

-

A couple months went by, and Lance continued to remember inside of the dreams, and Keith (as far as he could tell) was happy... Except for one huge problem. As they went on more dates, talked, hung out, and did gross couply things that only they would ever know about, Keith seemed to get used to dating Lance in their dreams, and even though he still couldn’t quite remember, he knew it was taking its toll in the real world.  

The problem, of course, was IRL Lance. IRL Lance acted the same as he usually did, no indication that he remembered or even wanted to date Keith. He continued to flirt with aliens, Allura, Shiro, and even Hunk one time, right in front of Keith, and of course this was the reason Keith sometimes arrived in the dreamscape looking like Lance had personally kicked his puppy.

Keith had told him once that there were days when all he wanted was to hold his hand or sling an arm around his shoulders like he’d done a dozen times before, but knew that this Lance would just shake him off, probably even reject him. It was a little messed up, Keith kept repeating, dating someone who didn’t know that they were dating you…

It only got worse when they took their relationship further. Keith once nearly called Lance his boyfriend in front of an entire delegation of Balmerans.

They both knew exactly how easy it would be for Keith to walk the three meters to Lance’s room, confess everything, and hope for the best, but there was still something holding him back.

He was so happy in the dreams with Lance, and it was understandable that he didn’t want to do anything to mess that up, even if that meant suffering in silence as Lance went on dates with aliens, and talked loudly about some mermaid he’d apparently kissed.

Despite how determined Keith was not to mess up anything between them, Lance couldn’t help but wish he would just try. There was a large part of him that kept whispering that nothing good could come out of hiding like this forever.

-

“This is Lance, my b-“ Lance raised an eyebrow when Keith coughed roughly, “My friend.”

“Keith, you okay man?” Lance patted him on the back as Keith’s face turned red. Figures he’d be the type of guy to pretend he was fine when he was literally dying, “Let’s go get you a drink.”

Weird things like that had been happening with Keith lately and Lance couldn’t really quite put his finger on it… Not that he was trying very hard. Keith could be a very mysterious and closed off guy sometimes.

So, if Keith had started sitting closer to Lance on the couch he pretended not to notice. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, or if Keith was doing it consciously, but it seemed like every time they sat down on the couches in the lounge, Keith was just a little bit closer than last time.

Still, a small part of him was a little confused because despite this fact, Keith had been avoiding him lately. And by lately he meant for the last month and a half. He always seemed to be too busy to talk, or was concentrating too hard when they were sparring. He didn’t think he’d had a decent conversation with the guy in at least a week.

On the other hand, a large part of him was thrilled about Keith’s weird new proximity thing. It was reassuring to know that he could turn to the left and find Keith there, always. There was no one he trusted more to cover his back, or for him to cover his. Sometimes they stood so close that their fingers nearly touched, and more often than not these days he found himself fighting the urge to reach out and fold their fingers together…

But he was a little too fond of having all ten digits still attached to him to attempt that. One time he’d been aimlessly flirting with some girl - mostly just to socialize, he hadn’t been having as much fun with flirting lately, especially because it was the easier way to drive Keith as far away from him as possible- but, after a minute or so she’d just frowned.

“Are you flirting with me?” The stunningly attractive hot pink Valnurian asked him, head tilted like this was genuinely perplexing to her, “I thought you were with the red paladin.”

Lance had just frozen, glancing back at Keith who was barely visible from the other side of Shiro, “Uh, no actually, we’re not.”

The girl just kind of blinked like she was still confused, so Lance sighed and excused himself. A year ago, he’d have been vehemently denying it, having a tantrum at the mere thought of dating Keith, but now he really didn’t find himself minding too much…

He got back to the group, going to stand next to Keith who said, “You’re done flirting already? I thought you’d last at least another five minutes.”

Lance punched his arm, “Hey thanks for the vote of confidence man, I really appreciate it.” He then leaned in conspiratorially, “You wanna know something weird though? She totally thought that you and I were a thing. Crazy right?”

Keith looked genuinely shocked, which quickly turned into something like barely contained irritation, “Yeah that is super weird.”

Lance leaned back frowning. Keith had acted genuinely put off by the idea of them dating. Would it really be so bad? He tried to picture it, picture himself on the couch, Keith’s arm around him as he played some stupid game on his phone, Keith giving him unhelpful pointers from the side. How eventually he’d set the phone aside, turning to Keith who would look at him like he was the only person in his world as they both leaned in-

Lance shook his head, that had gone further than he meant to. _I’ll just file that under “deal with later” for the time being._ He thought to himself, doing his best to push the image out of his mind. It popped up a few times over the next couple of days but each time he’d force himself to think of something else and eventually it stopped plaguing him.

-

Since it was obvious that Keith was suffering IRL, dream Lance never stopped bugging him about the situation. He wanted to get to the bottom of it just as much as Keith did, but he hadn’t hit the point of resignation yet. Not like Keith had seemed to anyway.

“So, wait.” Lance sat up, ignoring Keith’s groan of protest, and turned to look down at him as he lay on the checkered blanket they’d been cuddling on on top of one of the million orange plateaus in the desert somewhere near Keith’s old shack. “When exactly did the dreams start? That you remember.”

Keith sighed and sat up, crossing his legs and leaning back on his hands, “It was right after we left Arus. Almost a year and a half ago.”

Lance felt his heart constrict. He’d just started remembering the dreams almost six weeks ago, but Keith had been plagued by this for nearly a year and a half.

“I’m so sorry.” Lance reached over to cover one of Keith’s hands with his own.

Keith bit his lip, glancing back at their hands on the blanket, “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

“There has to be some sort of explanation though.” Lance frowned, “I mean why now? Why didn’t I remember before, and why can’t I still remember when I wake up?”

Keith opened his mouth to reply and by the look on his face Lance knew what he was going to say, “Nope.” Lance cut him off before he could get a word out, “Don’t say it’s because you’re not my soulmate. Because you are.” He squeezed Keith’s hand in his, “I know you are.”

He heard Keith draw in a shaky breath, but his face didn’t betray his emotions as he turned to meet Lance’s eye, “Then what is the cause?”

“You said it happened right after Arus, right?”

Keith nodded, and something clicked in Lance’s mind, “Didn’t I get injured or something?” His memories were just as slippery as ever in the dream, but he had a vague image of an explosion and then something about Sendak.

Keith’s eyes widened, “You pushed Coran out of the way of an explosion and hit your head.”

Lance nodded, “Right, and you got mad at me because I didn’t remember the bonding moment.” Keith rolled his eyes, but Lance continued, “So maybe that wasn’t the only thing the explosion made me forget.”

Keith was silent long enough that Lance turned to look at him, and blinked when he saw Keith’s eyes shot wide, looking like his thoughts were traveling a mile a second.

“Holy shit.” He finally whispered, “Holy shit, Lance…” Lance bit back a grin when Keith grabbed his shoulders, hope shining in his eyes, “That has to be it!”

Lance reached up and brought his hands down, both to stop him from shaking him, and to twine their fingers together, “There, see? The explosion probably knocked something loose in the soulmate department of my brain and that’s why we’re stuck in this predicament.”

“Oh wait.” Keith frowned suddenly, “That can’t be right… Your head’s way too thick for you to get brain damage.”

“Hey!” Lance shoved him over, but was relieved when Keith cracked up laughing. It was nice to see him so relatively carefree, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

Lance never thought he’d find himself hoping he had brain damage. And yet.

-

“You want me to do what?!” Lance set his hands on his hips, narrowing his eyes at Keith, “What exactly do you think is wrong with my head?”

Keith bit his lip for a moment, looking like he didn’t want to explain, and Coran shifted uncomfortably behind him, “Look, Lance, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong, I just noticed something that-“

“Yeah sure, ha ha, dude.” Lance rolled his eyes, Keith really was bad at pulling pranks, “”There’s something wrong with your head, Lance.” Real original.”

Keith’s eyebrows shot up and Lance sensed a fight brewing on the horizon, “This isn’t a joke!”

“What do you mean this isn’t a joke?” Lance folded his arms, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I haven’t exactly hit my head on anything recently. Why the hell would you think I have head trauma?”

Keith shifted, suddenly looking uncomfortable and mumbled something under his breath.

“What?”

“I said, that’s because it happened back on Arus. When you saved Coran from that explosion.” They started at one another intently for a moment before Lance blinked.

“You uh… you do realize that was like well over a year and a half ago, right?”

“I’m aware.” Keith folded his arms again, his eyes going right back to stubborn.

Lance glanced over Keith at Coran for some backup, and the old man set a hand on Keith’s shoulder gently, “Keith, my boy… That’s quite a long time for something as serious as head trauma to go unnoticed.”

Keith shrugged off his hand, wheeling around to face him, “Except it _hasn’t_ gone unnoticed. I noticed it.”

“One person’s perspective doesn’t necessarily mean something like that, are you sure it wasn’t a misunderstanding-“

“I’m sure!” Keith threw up his arms in frustration, but Coran continued on.

“Wouldn’t the pods have caught it?” Lance folded his arms, “I’ve been in and out of them more times than I can count, and they’ve never said anything.”

“Well,” Coran looked uncomfortable, “Brain damage is quite complex and can present itself very differently from normal physical trauma.” Keith turned a smug look back to Lance, and Coran hurried to add, “But, Lance himself hasn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary, which I think would be the largest indicator of any sort of injury.”

Keith continued to make frustrated noises under his breath, but Lance just frowned, “Wait, what exactly did you notice about me that made you think I have brain damage?”

Keith suddenly went very still, meeting his eyes for a brief moment before the fight left his shoulders and he slumped as if the weight of the world rested on his back, “You know what? Never mind. Enjoy your healthy brain.”

He slouched out of the room and Lance met Coran’s eyes, relieved to see that the old man looked just as bewildered as he felt.

“I could give you a quick exam, if it would put his mind at ease.”

“No, I think I’m okay.” Lance frowned. He’d have noticed by now if he had lasting head trauma, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry this update is so late, I've hit sort of a writers block when it comes to writing stuff for voltron/klance lately... on the bright side, I actually wrote the last two chapters before I wrote this one so those WILL be up soon, and in the mean time I've fallen back into my marvel addiction, so if anyone is also a slut for stevetony I've been writing a lot of them lately and you can come check out those stories on my page :)
> 
> As always I hope you enjoyed this update, please leave a comment if you did, and if you really want you can now commission me!! (dm for details, my tumblr is mellodramaticlawliet and so is my gmail)


	8. Penultimate

When he opened his eyes that night, Lance found Keith sitting slumped on the edge of a cliff. Lance walked over to the edge, chuckling a little as he glanced over and recognized it as the one they’d driven off of the night they’d rescued Shiro.

He turned to crack a joke, but felt his breath catch in his throat as he registered the expression on Keith’s face. The guy looked like someone had socked him unexpectedly in the gut.

Lance sighed, mentally kicking himself, before perching carefully on the edge next to him, relieved when Keith automatically moved over to give him room, “Alright, what did IRL Lance do to you this time?”

It had been a few months since he had started to remember the dreams, but despite how hard he tried every single night, he still couldn’t manage to translate that into his waking moments. One particularly unfortunate result of this was the fact that IRL Lance still hadn’t quite yet kicked the habit of starting fights with Keith. He had thought that he was getting better, it’d been a few weeks since the last time this had happened. By the looks of it though, this one had been pretty nasty.

Keith glanced up at him, his eyes looking distracted, before he shrugged, turning to continue staring at the ground far below them, “Nothing too different from usual.”

Lance felt his heart squeeze anyway, wishing for the billionth time he could reach out of the dream and slap himself in the face. Instead he settled for wrapping an arm around Keith’s shoulders, relieved when Keith leaned into his side, letting out a soft sigh.

Lance glanced away over the cliff’s edge, his mind conjuring a blurry image of himself clutching the back of Keith’s jacket, the ground rushing up to meet them.

They sat there quietly for a moment before Keith took a deep breath and said – just quietly enough that Lance nearly missed it – “You know I love you, right?”

Lance’s heart stopped for a moment, the air leaving his lungs like he’d been punched in the sternum. It took him a moment to come back to his senses but when he did, he retracted the arm from Keith’s shoulders pushing himself up and swiveling until he straddled Keith’s lap, ignoring Keith’s panicked look as he scrambled to keep them on the ledge, setting one hand under Keith’s chin and forcing him to meet his eyes.

“You know I love you too.”

Keith’s eyes immediately filled with tears, but Lance’s response was cut off when Keith lunged forward, pressing their lips together, one hand on the small of his back pulling him closer until there wasn’t a single atom’s width of space between them. Lance pushed forward just as insistently, trying to convey both his love and his apology in one kiss.

They broke apart laughing after a brief moment as they nearly fell off of the cliff.

“I just wish I could tell you that while I’m awake.” Keith whispered against his lips, pressing in for another chaste kiss.

They broke apart and Lance wiped a stray tear from Keith’s face with the pad of his thumb, “You know nothing is going to change the way I feel about you, IRL Lance just has to catch up.”

Keith let out a breathy laugh, and ran a hand through Lance’s hair, tucking some of the longer strands behind his ear, “And how is that any different than usual?”

Lance smacked his chest, shifting to try to stand up, “Wow, way to ruin the moment Kogane. We literally just confessed our love for one another, and you just _had_ to bring that up, didn’t you?”

Keith let out a bark of laughter, reaching out to pull Lance back onto his lap, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He continued to chuckle, “It was just too easy.”

“Oh, so now I’m easy!?” Lance bit back his own laughter, trying – and failing – to stay mad at him. He should have known better, he thought, as Keith peppered his face with kisses despite his halfhearted protests. He’d never be able to stay mad at Keith.

-

Earlier, it had been a long day.

“Uh…” Lance stared in bewilderment at the arm Keith had wrapped around his shoulders, trying to figure out if he’d imagined Keith kissing his temple, “Hey there...”

For a moment, no one moved, and Lance almost thought nothing was going to happen, until Keith’s eyes shot wide and in the blink of an eye, he was halfway across the room, staring at Lance with a horrified expression while Lance tried to reconcile the cold spot on his shoulders where Keith’s arm had just been, with the haunting familiarity that had accompanied it being there.

It had been a long day. They’d all woken up to blaring alarms. A Galra fleet at their heels and a trap awaiting them on the nearby planet. By the time they had all stumbled out of their lions it was nearly time for dinner, but all anyone wanted to do was sleep. Hence all of them collapsing on the couches in the lounge. Hence Keith landing right next to Lance. Hence everyone watching the two of them like an incorrectly defused bomb.

“I-I… uh…”

Lance couldn’t recall a time where Keith had ever been more flustered or lost for words, which was saying something. Unfortunately, Lance was feeling much along the same line, “…Keith?”

At the sound of his name, Keith flinched and stopped trying to talk. Instead he held up a hand awkwardly, managed a small “Goodnight,” and walked briskly out the door.

Everyone looked to Shiro for an explanation, but even he looked properly befuddled, “Don’t look at me.”

This was unfortunate, as once it was clear Shiro had no explanation, everyone turned back to Lance, who was starting to feel unsettled by the familiarity of it all. It was an intense few seconds of everyone staring in silence, before Pidge broke the ice.

“He does know that we haven’t eaten dinner yet, right?”

-

Sometimes Keith would get this faraway look in his eyes, and as much as Lance hated that look, he knew exactly what Keith was thinking about.

“So, when I start remembering things in real life-“

“Don’t.” Keith shook his head, tugging a little at Lance’s hair as he carded his fingers through it, “Can we just not go there right now?”

They were in the old treehouse in Lance’s backyard in Cuba. In real life his mom had it torn down when he was around the age of ten after Rachel nearly broke her leg falling through a rotten floorboard. Luckily in dreamland, pesky things like the linear progression of cause and effect didn’t apply, and the treehouse looked like it had when his father first built it.

The little house was smaller than Lance remembered, though, if he was being honest. The two of them barely fit with Keith leaning against the wall and Lance was lying on the floor, his head in Keith’s lap, listening to the dream birds singing just through the little window.

“But Keith,” Lance made to sit up, and Keith set a hand gently on his chest, so he laid back down in defeat, “I get that I can’t know for sure, but I can basically guarantee that IRL Lance wouldn’t just blow you off if you explained everything to him-“

Keith sighed, “I tried once. Remember that time you told me you loved me?”

“And you nearly pushed me off a cliff? Yes, I do seem to recall that.”

Keith shoved him, rolling his eyes, “The next morning I went to go tell you and you were sitting in the lounge with Allura.” His expression sinking, “You were flirting with her and she wasn’t brushing you off for once. You looked so happy.”

Lance frowned, wishing he remembered what Keith was talking about. Whenever he thought about Allura, whenever Keith brought her up he couldn’t figure out why Keith was so convinced he was in love with her.

“You know Alteans have different soul marks, and I don’t exactly have pink tattoos all over my body.” He waved his arms around in Keith’s face for emphasis, and Keith just smiled wryly, catching them and folding their fingers together.

“We’ve been over this,” Keith rolled his eyes, “Yeah she has soul marks, but it’s not like she actually still has a soulmate. Whoever it was has been dead for over 10,000 years, and IRL you thinks you don’t have a soulmate in the first place.” 

“Keith…” Lance frowned, “I can guarantee like 90% that I would be much happier with you.”

“Yeah but see, it’s that 10% I just can’t shake.” Keith bit his lip.

“Am I really that different in here?” Lance raised an eyebrow. He knew the answer. He might not be able to recall specific memories with clarity but that doesn’t mean he had complete amnesia.

“No.” Keith met his eyes, “But I went so long thinking that this would be entirely one sided. Can I just appreciate the idea of a happy ending for a little longer?”

Lance sighed, never able to deny him anything, “You know there’s nothing I can do about it. I just hate it when you arrive looking like you’re going to cry because IRL Lance flirted with another alien in front of you.”

Keith shot him a wry look, “Isn’t that what Dream You is here for? Comforting me when IRL You is a dick?”

“We’ve gotten so much closer lately.” Lance continued like he hadn’t heard him. He didn’t know where his sudden conviction came from, but he could tell he was right, “You know I would always believe you when it’s about something this important.”

“I don’t want false hope.” Keith shook his head, “You think I don’t want to be able to do this with you in real life? To not have to pretend I’m not stupidly in love with you? To not have to pretend I don’t vividly know that it feels like to kiss you? I want so badly to tell the rest of the team that we’re dating. I want it to be messy and awkward, and I want Pidge to tease us, and Shiro to ruffle my hair, and Hunk to roll his eyes and say something annoying like “finally.”” He sighed, and Lance reached up to twine their fingers together comfortingly.

“I want that all so bad, and sometimes it’s all I can think about when I’m around you out there. But it would kill me if I told you and you rejected me. Or if you didn’t believe me and didn’t want to. I can’t go through that again. And sometimes…” Lance saw the way he couldn’t meet his eyes and cursed his past dream self for being a dick, “Sometimes I’m just so scared that one day we’ll get here, and you’ll stare at me with that blank look in your eyes and tell me you don’t remember any of this.”

“Alright, fine.” Lance relented, he couldn’t bring himself to argue against the anguish in Keith’s eyes, “You know that’s never going to happen though. No matter how many times IRL Lance flirts with Allura. I’d never forget this.” He squeezed Keith’s hand, “Never again, not in here.”

“You can’t guarantee that.”

“Yes I can.” Lance puffed out his chest, “With the gods themselves as my witness, if I ever forget our time here, then… then you have full permission to set IRL me on fire.”

“Aw, babe,” Keith cracked up, clapping a hand over his mouth mockingly, “You really mean it?”

“Of course, you _actual_ pyromaniac.” Lance swatted at his arm as he continued to laugh, but the way Keith was laughing told him that his joke had done its job. These days anything that could assuage some of the anxiety Keith faced on a daily basis because of this whole fucked up scenario was a blessing.

“Hey.” He reached up a hand to cup Keith’s face, feeling his heart melt when Keith leaned into the touch, his eyes soft when they lowered to meet his, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Lance.”

Keith leaned down to press a soft kiss to his lips, and if he felt Keith brush away a stray tear after a second or two, he said nothing, just tried to push as much love and affection as he could through the kiss.

-

Lance was nothing short of thrilled. Maybe a little shocked as well. Pepper in a tinge of bewilderment. That’s how he felt the day Allura didn’t brush off his flirting.

It had been a long day, but they were both in a good mood anyway. She and Lotor had made large advances on the ship, and Lance had had a particularly good day kicking ass and saving lives. Everyone else seemed busy so they decided to go finish that Altean sitcom they’d started so long ago but never really had the time to finish.

Lance had been flirting with her, but it was mostly for nostalgia’s sake - it had been so long since he’d really meant it - but then… she didn’t brush it off. Instead she laughed and gave him a little shove. No eyeroll, no change of subject, no “cut it out, Lance.”

So, he tested it again. “Hey Allura, do you want to hear my latest pickup line?”

She raised an eyebrow at him curiously, so he continued, “Are you wearing space pants because your ass is out of this world!”

She nearly doubled over laughing, bracing a hand on his shoulder as she snorted, and Lance couldn’t help but grin. He and Allura had grown extremely close over the past few months and he was glad they were able to joke like this now.

Movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, and he managed to just catch sight of Keith disappearing back down the hallway before the doors swished shut behind him. Lance wondered what he might have wanted.

“Lance, that has to be your best one yet.” Allura wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye, “Maybe I’ll use that one on Lotor later.”

“Haha, sure.” Lance had suspected her feelings for Lotor for a while now, and as much as it had pained him at first, he’d moved on. His crush on Allura was just that: a crush. If he was being honest she was more of a sister to him at that point, so when she confirmed her feelings he wasn’t too incredibly surprised to find himself able to feel genuinely happy for her, “You should totally do that, just make sure to videotape his reaction.”

-

Lance opened his eyes to find himself back home. He was sitting on his front porch, on the old bench swing that his mama always worried would fall apart one day. He sighed, tilting his head back to catch the warm rays of the Cuban sun.

He startled as he heard the telltale creaking of the front gate being opened and felt his heart swell with the prospect of seeing his mother walking up the path. When his head snapped up though, he caught sight of Keith carefully picking his way around the toys that Lance’s nephew and niece had no doubt left there.

“Keith?” Lance blinked in surprise as Keith hopped up the front steps onto the porch and unceremoniously dropped down onto the bench beside him.

“Hello.” Keith smiled softly, something that Lance couldn’t quite place dancing behind his eyes. Before Lance had time to respond, Keith had leaned forward, his hand coming up to cup his jaw with the ease and fluidity that only comes from practice, and pressed their lips together.

Lance felt a couple different emotions flit through him like dogs after cars, but none stayed long enough for him to properly analyze apart from the immediate sense of dread that something here wasn’t quite right. This must have registered to Keith through their connection because after only a few seconds he pulled back, and Lance found himself immediately mourning the loss of contact.

He tensed as the swing jolted back, feeling Keith practically jump to his feet, and opened his eyes to find silent tears falling down Keith’s face. Lance immediately felt his own heart drop in response. Keith stood stock still, arms wrapped around himself with his hands pressed to the sides of his chest like he couldn’t breathe, but the worst part were his eyes. His eyes were wide with disbelieve, fear, panic, and what Lance could only describe as heartbreak.

“I…” When Keith spoke, it sounded like he was trying to swallow a handful of nails, “I can’t believe I actually let myself hope…”

“Keith?” Lance stood and made to step forward, but stopped when Keith jerked backward like Lance was emitting radiation, “Keith what’s wrong?”

Keith just shook his head, refusing to even look at him. Lance felt horrible. It was clear that whatever the issue was it was his fault, but he didn’t know what he did in the first place, and he didn’t know how he was supposed to fix it.

“Keith-“ He tried again, but Keith just sighed, the fight leaving his eyes as he finally looked up at Lance. He looked wretched.

“I have to go.”

“What? But-“

“No, Lance.” Keith shook his head, still backing away, “I just… I can’t be here.”

Lance just watched in silent dread as Keith turned and fled, unable to shake the feeling that he’d just messed up big time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter is a little hard to follow, it made sense to write the dreams and days backwards in my head for some reason, so ifanything is confusing lmk and I can see if I can switch them around or something...
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked the second to last chapter, if you did please feel free to leave any comments or reviews :)


	9. La Fine

Lance opened his eyes and a barrage of memories hit him like a moving truck. He leapt out of bed, stumbling and clutching his head when more images flooded in. Nearly two years of memories were cramming themselves in his head, but Lance could only focus on one thing. He had to find Keith.

He nearly tripped over an image of Keith lying on his back, his arms folded behind his head, eyes smiling like all he could see was Lance. He turned and there was Keith again, this time sitting at the edge of a pool, his legs dangling in the water looking like the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. To his right there was Keith putting way too much cheese on his pizza, trying to seem nonchalant like if he was casual enough about it, Lance wouldn’t remember his lactose intolerance.

There’s Keith hugging him. Keith holding his hand. Keith with his fingers tangled in Lance’s hair, their mouths pressed together like a molecule of space between them was illegal. Finally he turned, and Keith was in front of him, practically in his arms, his eyes fierce, “You know I love you too.”

And just like that it all slammed home.

Vaguely he heard the sound of a door opening and shutting and then footsteps, but he was too busy trying to keep the pieces of his mind in relatively one place. The second he had a moment of clarity he swore, realizing that must have been Keith leaving his room.

He sprinted, barely managing to fit through the door when it didn’t open fast enough, thankful that his head had finally stopped spinning, and nearly ran smack dab into Allura and Romelle.

“Lance!” Allura jumped back in surprise and Lance skidded to a halt, “What’s the matter?”

“Allura! Have you seen Keith?”

“I… What?” She raised an eyebrow at his franticness, and Lance was nearly bursting out of his skin at the prospect of standing there another second.

“Never mind!” Lance took off again. He’d fucked up really bad in the dreamscape last night, and he knew Keith was probably currently in the process of losing his fucking mind.

He skidded to a stop at the kitchen doors and poked his head in. The room was empty save for one very confused looking Hunk.

“Lance?”

“Sorry Hunk, can’t talk!”

“Wait!”

He didn’t stop to see if Hunk was following him as he sprinted for the lounge. He nearly ran into the doors when they didn’t open fast enough and stumbled breathlessly into the room, only to find Keith Shiro and Pidge in the midst of what looked to be an argument.

For a moment, the world seemed to come to a complete standstill. Pidge was sitting cross legged on the couch with her laptop, with Keith and Shiro standing nearby. Shiro had a hand wrapped around Keith’s bicep like he was trying to keep him in place with a concerned look on his face, and Keith… Keith looked like a train wreck.

His eyes were red and puffy, and he was still in pajamas – just a t-shirt and low riding sweatpants. He was standing facing Shiro with a closed expression and his arm raised like he was about to rip it out of Shiro’s grip, but when Lance entered the room he glanced up and the anguish on his face nearly broke Lance’s heart. He was painfully aware of the irony considering he was the one who broke Keith’s heart first.

For a moment all four of them stared at one another. Lance didn’t dare move a muscle, knowing the second he did Keith would bolt. He needed to somehow get the message across without startling-

The room unfroze when Hunk entered just behind Lance, panting slightly, clearly having chased after him, “Hey man, I just-“

“Keith!” Lance ignored Hunk as Keith unfroze and vaulted over the couch, looking like a caged animal about to make a break for the door on the other side of the room.

Keith flinched to a stop when he heard his name, only half turning in his direction, eyes carefully trained on the floor, “What?”

His voice was scratchy and raw, and Lance was too busy staring at him to notice Pidge raise an eyebrow at them, “I should have known it had something to do with Lance.”

“Shut up, Pidge.” Keith growled halfheartedly, turning to her and Shiro.

“Well it’s the truth!” Pidge folded her arms, “And you know what, Keith? You’ve been stuck on this for so long, the rest of us are starting to worry it’s going to eat you alive.”

“Pidge.” Shiro said weakly.

The room was silent for a beat, and Keith opened his mouth to retort but stopped and whirled around when he noticed how close Lance had gotten. He’d taken advantage of the distraction and snuck around the other side of the couch. Keith only had a moment to flinch before Lance had grabbed ahold of him by his shoulders, firmly pressing their lips together.

After less than a nanosecond Keith’s arms were around his back, pressing him impossibly closer as Lance’s arms snaked around his shoulders. They were as close as physically possible, and it still wasn’t enough.

He could feel the way Keith’s hands were shaking where they were balled up in the back of his shirt and Lance slid his hands up his neck to curl his fingers in Keith’s hair, tugging a little the way he knew Keith secretly loved.

He put his all into the kiss, marveling both in the familiarity of the slide of Keith’s lips against his and the newfound relief that he could feel permeating every inch of them that was connected.

After what seemed like no time at all, he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat from off to the side, and the two of them broke apart slowly, suddenly aware they had an audience.

“What, um…” Keith cleared his throat, his voice sounding even scratchier than before, and Lance smugly noted that his lips were swollen red and his hair was mussed up, “What was that for?”

Lance stared at him, noting the fear and hope intermingling in his eyes, and grinned, pressing their foreheads together, “I remember, Keith. I remember.”

He heard Keith’s breath catch, “Holy fuck.” Keith kissed him again, “Holy _fuck_ … somebody pinch me.”

Lance didn’t waste the opportunity and Keith yelped and hit him.

“Hey, you asked!”

“Um, question.” They turned to find Pidge with her hand in the air like they were back at the Garrison, “What the hell did we miss?”

Lance and Keith glanced around at the rest of the room’s bewildered faces and burst out laughing. Keith pressed his forehead into Lance’s shoulder the same way he had at the pool right after their first dream-kiss, and Lance felt like he was floating, drunk on his own high spirits.

“Lady and gentlemen,” Lance swept an arm out in a flourishing gesture, “May I present to you… my soulmate, Keith Kogane.”

He gestured to Keith, who promptly turned beet red but grinned anyway, even if he did roll his eyes.

“How…” Shiro glanced between them, “How did you know? And why was Keith so upset then?”

Lance glanced at Keith, who was starting to look uncomfortable, and chuckled a little, “Sorry, it’s really not that funny… Our soul link was a dream connection, but at first Keith was the only one who remembered the dreams.”

He went on to explain the whole twisted story, and by the end, the room was silent.

“So, you’re telling me,” Pidge pinched the bridge of her nose, “That you two have been dating for months now over in dream lala land, while the rest of us have had to deal with both of your pining asses irl?”

“Yep, yeah, pretty much.” Lance grimaced, and hugged Keith tighter to him, “But now I remember! So if you’ll excuse us, I have a boyfriend that I am now going to go thoroughly defile to make up for the fact that I’ve been literally forgetting about him.”

“Finally.” Hunk rolled his eyes, but Lance was too busy pulling Keith – who was honest to god _giggling_ at his antics – from the room by his wrist to come up with a retort.

They didn’t even make it back to their rooms before Keith had Lance pressed up against the wall, their mouths practically glued together, “Please tell me this is real.”

Lance slid a hand up to cup his cheek, grinning like an idiot when Keith nuzzled into the touch, “It’s always been real, Keith. I just know that too now.” He could still see some doubt behind Keith’s eyes, but knew that it would take a little while to completely get rid of his doubts.

He leaned back in to kiss the worry from Keith’s mind, but paused when he heard a giggle from down the hallway, just barely catching sight of long blonde and white hair disappear around the corner.

“Suddenly I’m missing dream world.” Lance grumbled, “At least there we had some _privacy_!” He shouted the last bit for the two eavesdroppers to hear and huffily pulled Keith – who was back to laughing – into his room.

-

It was a couple months later that Lance opened his eyes to find Keith, already awake, sleepily running his fingers through the hair that had drifted across Lance’s forehead. His eyes were sparkling with poorly hidden amusement, but Lance couldn’t find it in him to fake being offended; not when Keith’s relaxed smile met his and he realized that this was the first time he’d woken up to a completely worry free Keith.

The first couple nights after Lance had remembered the dreams were rough. The dreams themselves had stopped – which Lance was secretly relieved about, if only because it meant he didn’t have anything to forget anymore – but the anxiety had still lingered in Keith.

More often than not in the mornings that followed, Lance had woken up to Keith staring at him, frozen in fear, only warming up when Lance assured him many times over that he remembered everything, that he loved him, and that he would never forget anything ever again.

The sight of Keith sleepy, relaxed, and unbothered, warmed Lance right down to his toes, and he let out a relieved breath he hadn’t known he was holding, reaching out to tug Keith snug against him, peppering his face with kisses.

“What’s this for?” Keith laughed, pretending to try to push Lance’s mouth away from its barrage against his face.

“Nothing.” Lance pulled away to study Keith, smiling to himself at what he saw, “I just love you.”

A small part of him would miss the dreams occasionally – they were good date material after all – but now, looking at Keith who was positively radiating contentedness as he snuggled deeper into his arms, he would trade all the dreams in the world for this moment.

“I love you too, idiot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may be mean to Keith in a lot of my fics, but I'm also a slut for happy endings... the world needs more of those :)
> 
> I hope you liked the ending!! (sorry if it seemed a bit rushed I might come back and edit it later!)  
> If you liked my story or want to see more content from me, comments are appreciated!!


End file.
